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Interesting fixtures article



strings

strings

Moving further North...
Feb 19, 2006
9,969
Barnsley
I never realised that putting the fixture list together was so difficult:

BBC Sport: Secrets of the fixture computer

An extract for you all:
West Ham, it turns out, are paired with Dagenham and Redbridge. But for reasons of revenue Southend request they do not play at home on the same day as the Hammers as they believe it impacts upon their attendance.

Southend, though, are in Essex, as are Colchester, so they cannot play together on the same weekend. Colchester share stewards with Ipswich so those two clubs also request they do not play home games on the same weekend. Transport links dictate Ipswich and Norwich do not play together on the same weekend either. In other words, when West Ham play at home can have an impact on when a club as far away as Norwich (108.8 miles) play their home fixtures. And there are 12 other professional clubs in London....
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Notters' Dad

Notters' Dad

Invicta
Apr 27, 2009
348
West of Lydd, South of Shoreham
Interesting article that, though I knew about the Southend/ West Ham issue - "supporters" are reputed to watch whichever is at home!

A cople of other quotes in the the article surprised me:

“every club is paired with another in regard to when they play their home and away fixtures”


“The Football League, for example, sends out a questionnaire to all their clubs in March. This is a club's opportunity to request specific dates they would like to avoid and what other team they would like to be paired with.”

Which raises the questions of who the heck we would need or want to be "paired with" (Palarse, Exeter ...) or can we say none?
 


The Large One

The Large One

Who's Next?
Jul 7, 2003
52,343
97.2FM
We normally have to tell the Fixtures people that we cannot play at home on the opening day of the season because of the clash with Pride - not this season though.

Plus, we always ask to change the home Saturday fixtures in December. Cheltenham got VERY stroppy with that a couple of season ago.
 


beorhthelm

beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius
Jul 21, 2003
35,854
He also manually creates the fixtures for Boxing Day and 28 December to try to minimise the travelling distance for fans. As Thompson readily admits, the computer has no concept of the distance between grounds.
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with some of the odd Boxing Day fixtures theres been recently, im not sure he does either.
 






Hiney

Hiney

Super Moderator
Helpful Moderator
Jul 5, 2003
19,396
Penrose, Cornwall
The Large One said:
Plus, we always ask to change the home Saturday fixtures in December. Cheltenham got VERY stroppy with that a couple of season ago.
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That's pretty rich.

According to that article, Cheltenham request the same thing if a home game clahes with the Cheltenham Festival.
 




S

Sonic The Hedgehog

Oi Lino You're A Disgrace
Jul 7, 2003
902
Wetherspoons, Fareham
Last season the Festival was the same week as a full set of midweek matches in League 1 - and Cheltenham were given a home match.

It was postponed and shifted back by a fortnight.
 




8ace

8ace

Banned
Jul 21, 2003
23,811
Brighton
Sonic The Hedgehog said:
Last season the Festival was the same week as a full set of midweek matches in League 1 - and Cheltenham were given a home match.

It was postponed and shifted back by a fortnight.
Click to expand...

That seems reasonable enough - but the article says this:

"Clubs cannot move a game away from an allocated weekend but they can switch the day of the match. Cheltenham, for example, often play a home game on a Friday when there is a clash with the horse racing festival."
 




















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